i've had an electric guitar for a couple of years now but never really took the time to learn, just fukking around and learned a few riffs here and there but nothing serious or significant...

recently i've really decided i wanna take this seriously, i'm tired of playing along to songs via air guitar...

any advice? suggestions? i'm learning through justin on youtube i'm sure you all know of him..

to make it worse, i have a fukked up ring finger on my fretting hand. that finger basically has very thin flesh on the tip has a pointy tip as supposed to the regular butted finger tips you all have... so not only is it painful to play with that finger, it's even tougher to play a note without touching the lower string... fml

but i really wanna learn so i'll have to figure it out somehow..

Thomas_Erak_Fan

11-13-2012 08:33 PM

My early days were pretty normal. I had a basic understanding of guitar because there were guitar classes in my middle school; that's how I essentially started. I could play few basic things like Pain it Black by the Rolling Stones and the intro riff to Reptilia by The Strokes.
I started practicing 4 hours a day doing pretty much chromatic exercises all day. Eventually learning how to play F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X., I did this as soon as I owned my guitar 2 years ago.

But yeah, if your finger hurts and it's painful I would stop for a while or tone it down a bit. Are your callouses in yet? I think that may be the cause of your pain. When your finger tips harden it'll be a lot less painful. And yes, Justin is a good instructor he is easy to follow and free to watch.

Advice I would give is don't quit when you're having a difficult time learning something. Many people quit playing because they have hard time over coming obstacles,tThis goes for all instruments. Also, practice with a metronome and play slowly and clean, it'll pay off later on. And learn how to alternate pick and learn several strumming patterns.

leesops

11-13-2012 11:17 PM

halffttime

I'am in some what of the same boat as you. My hands are jacked up ( thanks to the Army )

I can only play power chords. but as they say there is more the one way to skin a cat.

So try other ways to play the song you want to learn it may not sound 100% but do not give up.

Rock on!!!!!!!!!

Steyr9001

11-13-2012 11:27 PM

If the tip of your ring finger on your fretting hand is messed up but you're still a beginner, consider teaching yourself to play lefty instead (assuming you're right handed). You'll have considerably less options for guitars in the future, but if you don't think you can play the other way then you may not have much of a choice.

The best advice I can give for a beginner is be patient. Take your time to make sure that you're learning things properly. Never be too proud or too embarrassed to ask someone more experienced than you for help, especially when you're first starting. The beginning is when the learning curve will be it's sharpest. Most importantly, have fun. Nothing can stop you from learning guitar quite like treating it like a chore instead of a hobby will.

And don't feel bad if you happen to be a relatively slow learner like myself. It was probably about a month from when I started before I was finally able to play my first full song (In League With Satan by Venom). It isn't a sport, and you shouldn't learn it to be an ultimate virtuoso guitar messiah - you should learn it to play music you enjoy.

halffttime

11-14-2012 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steyr9001

If the tip of your ring finger on your fretting hand is messed up but you're still a beginner, consider teaching yourself to play lefty instead (assuming you're right handed). You'll have considerably less options for guitars in the future, but if you don't think you can play the other way then you may not have much of a choice.

The best advice I can give for a beginner is be patient. Take your time to make sure that you're learning things properly. Never be too proud or too embarrassed to ask someone more experienced than you for help, especially when you're first starting. The beginning is when the learning curve will be it's sharpest. Most importantly, have fun. Nothing can stop you from learning guitar quite like treating it like a chore instead of a hobby will.

And don't feel bad if you happen to be a relatively slow learner like myself. It was probably about a month from when I started before I was finally able to play my first full song (In League With Satan by Venom). It isn't a sport, and you shouldn't learn it to be an ultimate virtuoso guitar messiah - you should learn it to play music you enjoy.

thanks for the replies i read all of them ^....

i don't think i'd be able to play left handed, i tried fretting with my write, pretending the strings were flipped, but it's like trying to read backwards.... it's just too awkward fretting with the right hand for me...

what makes me sad and kinda discourages me, is no matter how good i can get i'd never be able to do things on the guitar others could because of my disadvantage..

just gotta suck it up though... that goes for everything in life right?

Junior#1

11-14-2012 03:13 AM

Post a picture of your ring finger. It may help us come up with alternatives. Or, if you have to learn left handed - which is very doubtful - all it takes is practice. It'll feel very awkward for a while, but eventually you will get used to it.

steven seagull

11-14-2012 04:09 AM

My early days were a shambles

I'd had the thing 6 months and could barely manage a few chords

Zoomyrs1

11-14-2012 04:15 AM

I remember playing a Kramer that I go for $50 through my stereo turned all the way up for distortion......

I had kind of a head start because I already played Sax and upright bass before I ever touched a guitar.

MegadethFan18

11-14-2012 07:38 AM

All I cared about was solos so I just played the same 3-4 solos over and over until I got fast. I've got a video of me playing the solo to Crazy Train 3 months after I started playing and it is terrible but back then I though it was amazing.

I was watching some old videos and I pretty much peaked after about a year and a half in terms of technical ability. I just watched videos online to pick up tips and I avoided a lot of bad habits by watching good players play, I didn't really learn songs I just practiced techniques a lot. I only really started jamming to songs recently because I had nowhere else I wanted to go as far as developing technique.

AndyGray

11-14-2012 10:28 AM

I learned a few power chord based songs, moved onto full chords & slow lead riffs after 6months. Started learning the pentatonic scale all over the neck along with a few techniques & just got faster, stronger & better.

Best advise I can give to anyone is to ALWAYS play with the guitar plugged in and at a good volume. I've known guitarists who can knock out a lovely jam on an electric acoustically but know nothing about muting & making it sound good.

Bikewer

11-14-2012 10:34 AM

I started out around 1975 or so. I was an adult already, in my mid-20s. Virtually everyone I knew played something; I took up the guitar in self-defense...
I actually bought a banjo first, but I wasn't making very good progress. My wife had her guitar lying around, an old Suzuki nylon-string, and I started fooling with that, working out of a basic "folk guitar" book I got from the library.
Found I was making better progress with the guitar than the banjo, so I took the banjo back to the music store and traded it for a little steel-string Yamaha.
Got a bluegrass guitar book and started teaching myself to flatpick. Also started subscribing to Guitar Player magazine, which proved invaluable.
Thought it would take me forever to get that basic "boom-chicka-boom" rythym pattern down reliably, but once it "clicked" I started making good progress.

J-Dawg158

11-14-2012 11:02 AM

When I started playing, I had the worst time trying to play the open C chord. As best I remember it took me a good three weeks of solid practicing to finally be able to play it without muting strings. I was steadily asking other people if it was that important of a chord and could I get away with not being able to play it :haha:

About the ring finger thing. Don't sweat it, I have a cut tendon in the pinky of my fretting hand so I can only bend the first joint of it, but I've slowly but surely worked my way around it and now can even play chords with stretches in them again. Hell, Django Reinhardt only had two fingers and played some amazing stuff. There's always a way to make things like that work in your favor. To illustrate, when I messed up my pinky I started just stretching my ring finger to play stuff that I would normally play with my pinky so now I've developed some insanely fast legato with those 3 fingers and now that I've gotten back some use with my pinky I'm a much better player for that.

If it's what you really wanna do then persevere. Don't worry about what you can't do and instead focus on what you can, & soon you're bound to discover that you actually can do a lot.

Quaned

11-14-2012 10:51 PM

I remember a couple weeks before lessons I attempted to teach myself tab... Long story short I thought the 21th fret was the 1st fret for some reason. :haha:

MattyPS

11-18-2012 01:01 PM

It took me like 5 months to understand what was a power-chord.

Simper-Yut

11-19-2012 06:34 AM

My first year or two was pretty terrible. Wasn't sure I'd ever become a halfway decent guitarist...much less a good one. Then one day something just clicked. I learned to fall in love with the instrument..and discovered progress is made by inches at a time; not miles.

Xter

11-19-2012 10:54 AM

9 years ago I started with an old electric guitar I found in my basement. It had water damage, the pick ups didn't work, and it had rusty strings. I played on that for a few weeks and then got a steel string acoustic. Epiphone Aj-100 or something like that. I still have it today, sounds great still! I learned a lot of Johnny Cash back then... Well strictly Johnny Cash. So I knew my basic chords by heart. Then the next year I got a Les Paul for Christmas and jammed away on that with Randy Rhoads. A year after that I was practicing 8-12 hours a day and made amazing progress. Practiced like that for 3 years, every sleepless night was worth it. From the rest of the time then to now, I've been a freelance musician playing whenever and where ever.

I played Violin for like 6 years before hand though. I wasn't good good at it, decent, but it helped me a lot on guitar and made me realize I'm better at guitar so the violin became neglected. I also have taken a lot of Music Theory classes and been into Jazz over the past year and a half. I still rock out though!

shredder1980

11-19-2012 08:12 PM

I blitzed through my first 6 months then I hit the wall and it wasn't till about 2 years that I had another burst of progression.

Addonexus408

11-19-2012 08:16 PM

My early days SUCKED. I learned to play on a $30 plywood classical guitar strung with steel strings

JoeFlips

11-19-2012 08:41 PM

Do like this guy:

ZILtoid_1991

11-22-2012 02:16 PM

I fretted a string with my left hand and plucked it with my right. I fingered an Em, and played it.